End Game
by SelimPensFiction
Summary: The Fourth Doctor and modern-day Sarah Jane Smith have one more adventure together.
1. Chapter 1

Sarah Jane Smith wiped a tear as she tended her garden. After stopping to blow her nose, she stroked the leaves of one her hydrangeas, then, her face darkening, stabbed the hand spade into the soil and marched indoors.

The whistle of the kettle snapped her out of her reverie as she washed her hands and rinsed her face in the WC. Back in the kitchen, she set a teabag in a large mug and poured the steaming water over top. After letting the mug steep a couple of minutes, she took it in two hands, cherishing the warmth, and walked to the window. The hydrangeas were flourishing this year, and, finally, after years of patient attention, they had turned a beautiful turquoise colour.

Sarah's smile then turned to a frown as she felt a slight vibration, then heard a familiar sound as a blue box materialized in the yard... right on top of the hydrangeas. Setting down the tea, she dashed outside and pounded on the police box.

"Doctor. Doctor! Move this infernal contraption of yours right now. Of all the places to materialize. My poor, lovely hydrangeas."

Backing away, Sarah sighed. They were done for at this point, anyway.

The TARDIS door swung open and out popped a head with dark, curly hair under a broad rimmed hat, and wide, comical eyes that had always reminded Sarah of Harpo Marx. A very long scarf was wrapped loosely around his neck.

The Doctor smiled broadly.

"Hello, Sarah," he said simply.

Sarah Jane Smith was speechless. "Doctor?" she said, finally.

"The one and only," said the Doctor, stepping out onto Sarah's lawn. "The definite article, you might say."

"But, it's you."

"Of course, it's me. I've come back."

"No, but, it's YOU you. Your third regeneration. I've already met your tenth. How can you be here?"

"Have you now? How very interesting," the Doctor said brightly. "Well, I'm not breaking the laws of time by being here, though perhaps I am bending them."

The Doctor took off his hat and stuffed it in a coat pocket. "Now then," he said, "all that nonsense with the Time Lords is over. Well, for now. Hopefully. So come away with me."

Sarah stepped back slightly, her eyes wide, her head shaking slightly.

"Oh, just once more then. For old time's sake, eh?" said the Doctor with a twinkle in his eyes. "The TARDIS is a time machine, after all. I'll have you back here just seconds after we leave."

"Really," said Sarah. "And you wouldn't just let me off in, I don't know, Aberdeen, would you?"

"Aberdeen?" The Doctor's brow furrowed. "Why on earth would I do that?"

Sara smiled. "Well I..." she began.

"Good! It's all settled, then." And with that, the Doctor took her hand and led Sarah Jane Smith into the TARDIS.

With a shrug, Sara let the Doctor have his way. She'd long since learned that one didn't argue with the Doctor once his mind was set. And after all, at this point, what was there to lose?

The control room was different from any she'd seen before. It wasn't as brightly lit nor as dim as some of the others. There was still the octagonal console and the central column. But the room was larger than she was used to, more organic somehow. The walls included the familiar inset circular patterns, the round things she'd sometimes called them, but connecting them was a fine network of narrow, tubular objects, grey and brown. She glanced upwards and noticed that the ceiling pulsed with symbols she didn't recognize. The symbols changed over time, morphing continuously. Some type of Gallifreyan alphabet, possibly.

She'd asked the Doctor once, this Doctor, just how big the TARDIS was. Shaking his head, he made the observation that humans had such a limited understanding of size. She did know that the TARDIS had many control rooms, and that the Doctor could use any one of them.

While she was thus occupied, the Doctor closed the TARDIS doors, flipped switches and turned dials on the console, typed commands on a keyboard, and with a shudder came the old wheezing, groaning sound. They were off.

Sarah steadied herself on a railing, then noticed her sleeve. Her clothes were still filthy from gardening.

"Doctor," she said, I'm going to go to the wardrobe to find some clean clothes to wear. Ok?"

"Hmm?" said the Doctor. "Yes, yes, of course," he replied as he continued to examine and adjust the control panel instruments.

With a sigh, Sara left the control room. Some things never changed. At times when she'd travelled with the Doctor, she'd felt like a third wheel, the "other" woman, as if the Doctor's one true companion was in fact the TARDIS.

The wardrobe wasn't where she remembered it, but she found it eventually. A large room with clothing from virtually every inhabited planet. At least, every inhabited planet that _wore_ clothing. Earth-style clothing was… over here. Rifling through the shirts, trousers, skirts and dresses, she found a long, frilly, white dress. Sarah recognized it right away and took it off the hanger to get a good look. It was the dress worn by the Doctor's former companion, Victoria. Sarah had worn the dress herself during that awful business with Sutekh. It was lovely, but she wouldn't fit into it at this point. Besides, it wasn't a very practical thing to wear while traveling with the Doctor. You never knew when you'd have to do a lot of running.

Sarah settled for a navy short-sleeve top, khaki trousers, and a comfortable pair of leather walking boots. Gathering them up, she exited the wardrobe to find a room where she could change. As she wandered the corridor, she paused. Was that water splashing?

Following the sound, she entered a room and sucked in her breath. In front of her was the largest indoor pool she'd ever seen. The water was a beautiful turquoise, the kind you only see at the finest Mediterranean beaches. On the poolside were benches, chairs, stacks of towels, terry-cloth dressing gowns, and consoles. The walls were lined with trees and bushes, and the ceiling was… very high indeed. Were those clouds up there?

Sarah Jane Smith shook her head and smiled. It was warm with a gentle, scented breeze, and so peaceful. Stumbling across the pool like this reminded her that travelling with the Doctor wasn't all getting chased by bug-eyed monsters. There were wonders as well.

Well then. A nice swim would be just the thing.

By the time Sarah returned to the control room, her hair still slightly damp, her mood had lightened considerably. Just then, the TARDIS shuddered to a halt. They'd materialized.

"Ah. There you are," the Doctor said. "Just in time."

"Where are we?" asked Sarah.

The Doctor's eyes widened and he grinned. "Let's find out, shall we?"

"And here we go again," Sarah muttered. But she smiled and, taking the Doctor's hand, followed him out of the TARDIS.


	2. Chapter 2

The Doctor stopped to lock the door, then paused to take in their surroundings.

"Well," said Sarah. "No sign of Daleks, Cybermen, or the Slitheen. This place can't be all bad."

"You know of the Slitheen?" said the Doctor.

"Oh, we've met once or twice," Sarah said.

"Fascinating. You must tell me all about it," said the Doctor.

"Another time, perhaps, Doctor. For now, let's focus on the present, shall we?"

They'd materialized in a meadow, with tall grass and wildflowers. There were woods behind them, and further beyond, hills and mountains. Ahead of them, a river meandered, the water splashing over rocks that jutted above the surface. The air smelled fresh and the sun was warm.

But something didn't seem quite right to Sarah. She knelt down and examined the grass more closely. The ground seemed very dry, and the grass felt brittle. Walking the short distance to the river bank, she saw that the water level had dropped substantially below its normal height.

Turning to the Doctor, Sarah said, "It's lovely here. But they seem to be going through a bit of drought."

"Hmm," said the Doctor. "Do you hear that?"

"I hear something," said Sarah.

"It's coming from that way," said the Doctor, pointing downstream. "Let's see what it is, shall we?"

As they followed the river, the sound became louder, until, after rounding a bend, they found that the source of the sound was in fact a waterfall.

But it was one unlike any Sarah had seen before. Instead of falling over a cliff, the river emptied into a round hole in the ground, an opening some one hundred feet in diameter.

Peering over the edge, Sarah couldn't see the bottom. It went straight down. How deep _was_ it? The wall of the tunnel caught Sarah's eye. It didn't seem to be made of rock or earth. The material was a dark green, with thin veins of gold scattered here and there.

The Doctor lay down beside the opening, opposite to where the river was draining, and let his hand rest on the tunnel wall for several seconds.

"It's organic," the Doctor whispered as he stood up. "The wall of that tunnel is made of living material."

"It's alive?" said Sarah. "But it's huge. It descends as far as the eye can see. And farther."

"Yes," said the Doctor. "Most extraordinary."

The woods came to an end here, and as Sarah and the Doctor turned their attention away from the river, they saw that a footpath led towards a building some half a mile away.

The didn't need to speak. With a shared glance, they tacitly agreed to check it out.

It was six feet in height, hewn from stone, circular in shape, and some twenty feet in diameter. Windowless, there was one door, about five feet high. It was fashioned from some type of earth-coloured resin material, with a metallic area, four inches square, centred about two feet from the ground.

"How very curious," the Doctor remarked as he slowly circled the building.

"Storage shed?" Sarah suggested.

The Doctor stopped at the door and pressed his hand against it. "I shouldn't think so. It's guarded by a rather elaborate mechanism if it is. At any rate, the door's locked."

"Allow me," said Sarah, withdrawing her sonic lipstick from a pocket. She activated it, the lock clicked, and the door swung outward slightly. Winking at the Doctor, who was staring at her wide-eyed, she held it up for him to see.

"Sonic lipstick," she said, then put it back in her pocket.

"Sonic lipstick?" The Doctor said. Then he smiled that broad, toothy smile that Sarah loved. "My, you _are_ full of surprises, aren't you?"

"Just wait," said Sarah. And with that, she crouched down and led the way into the building.

The interior was dimly lit, the light seeming to come from the interior walls, though Sarah couldn't see the source. There was only a stairwell leading down. Sarah descended, followed by the Doctor. The stairwell walls were of stone, but emitted a light that seemed to follow them. When Sarah stopped, the light stopped, and when she resumed, the light continued to accompany them so they could see their way.

They descended for some time in a zigzag pattern, Sarah wasn't sure how far. Eventually, however, they came to the bottom, and found themselves in a huge open area. It was like being in a cathedral, Sarah thought, minus the stained glass windows. Airy, lit with a diffuse light that seemed very much like natural sunlight. Chairs and tables were arranged haphazardly around the floor. One wall was entirely covered in tapestries. Another consisted of a honeycomb of wooden slots, starting from a couple of feet above the floor to some twenty feet high, housing what looked like old, discoloured parchments.

Stepping closer to the tapestries, the Doctor commented, "These tell the story of this civilization. Look. An agrarian people, their dwellings mostly under the ground. There's only natural beauty here. Plants, flowers, rivers, mountains. No scenes of warfare or conflict. But clearly they've also mastered advanced technologies. It seems they've achieved something very few civilizations have: peace and complete harmony with their natural environment."

"No paintings of their people, though." Sarah said. "I wonder what they look like. And where they are."

"This must be a kind of library, or cultural centre, perhaps," said the Doctor, as he walked to the opposite wall. "Possibly their entire history is set out in these manuscripts."

The Doctor and Sarah turned at the sound of a voice.

"You young scallywags!" it said. "How did you get in here?"

"Scallywags?" said the Doctor.

At first all they could see of the newcomer was an earth-coloured, hooded robe. When it reached the bottom of the stairs, a three-fingered hand emerged from the sleeve and pulled back the hood.

It was humanoid, seemingly male, but small, only about three feet tall, with large eyes, a bulbous nose, small mouth, and thick, rust-coloured hair and beard. When he caught sight of Sarah and the Doctor he stopped short, his mouth gaping.

"We didn't mean to intrude," said the Doctor. We're travellers."

"My name is Sarah, and this is the Doctor."

"Travellers," the man repeated weakly. He moved a few steps forward and sat down. "Did you perchance arrive in a blue box?"

"What?" said the Doctor. "How could you have known that?"

Shaking his head, the man stood again, and walked to the wall of parchments, withdrawing one of them.

The man set the parchment down on one of the tables, then rolled it out and held it flat for Sarah and the Doctor to read.

_And it shall come to pass that when the river is low, and the grasses are dry, and the crops do wither, that travellers shall arrive, brought forth from a great distance by a box that is blue. And these travellers shall be twice your height, and will be your salvation, for they will cause the waters to flow again and allow all of nature to be healed. _

"What are those symbols underneath the text?" Sarah asked.

The Doctor's eyes were fixed on the parchment.

"Doctor?"

The Doctor turned to Sarah. "They're ancient Gallifreyan," he whispered. "Space-time coordinates."


	3. Chapter 3

"Gallifreyan?" said Sarah. "The Time Lords were here?"

The Doctor didn't answer. Instead, he sat on one of the tables and ran his hand through his hair, thinking furiously.

Sarah turned to the indigenous man. "So what's your name then?" she asked.

"I'm called Liber," the man said. "I tend to this archive of our culture and history."

"And what can you tell me about the troubles your people are having?" said Sarah.

Liber sighed. "For an age our people have achieved harmony with our environment. We cultivate crops and harvest the bounty of the forest. The River provides for us by watering crops from underground pools. Our own drinking water is taken from wells that tap into those same pools. In return, organic waste matter, including our own bodies after death, are returned to the River. And so the cycle continues.

"But conditions have been worsening for a generation. The underground pools are drying up and the very River itself is diminishing. It has reached a point where, if a solution is not found, our race may be doomed to starvation.

"All are aware of the prophecy, though I think we've not dared to hope. But now you're here. The prophecy spoke truly. Can you help us?"

"What about rain?" Sarah asked. "Has it not rained in a while?"

Wrinkling his forehead, Liber answered, "Rain. I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with that concept."

"You know," Sarah said. "Dark clouds. Water falling from the sky."

"Water falling from the sky!" said Liber. That would be wondrous indeed."

Sarah turned to the Doctor.

"Right," said the Doctor. Getting to his feet, he said, "We'll do our very best. We need to take this scroll with us. Do you mind?"

"Please," said Liber, handing the parchment to the Doctor.

"Come along Sarah," said the Doctor as he rolled up the scroll and placed it in a coat pocket.

After exiting the underground chamber, Sarah asked, "Where are we off to then?"

"To the location given by these space-time coordinates. Unless I miss my guess, that means the interior of this very planet. Let's see what we find there, shall we?

When they reached the TARDIS, the Doctor fed the parchment scroll into a slot in the TARDIS console. After typing some commands on the keyboard, the central column began to rise and fall, and they were on their way. Just moments later, they heard the tell-tale wheezing, groaning sound, and the TARDIS materialized.

Sarah and the Doctor exited the TARDIS and found themselves in an underground cavern, well illuminated by phosphorescent material on the wall a few feet to their right and the ceiling above. The cavern stretched as far as the eye could see. The ceiling was at least one hundred feet high.

It was beautiful. Cool, but not cold, with oddly shaped stalagmites jutting up from the floor and long stalactites hanging from the ceiling. Much of the central floor was water, a giant pool fed by a broad stream emptying from the phosphorescent rock. The pool wasn't still; it swirled about, slowly, in whirlpool fashion.

The Doctor approached the glowing rock, touched it, then backed away quickly.

"What is it?" Sarah asked.

"This isn't rock," the Doctor said, looking up and down at the wall in front of him. "It's living tissue, the same type of tissue we saw at the waterfall."

"Living tissue that attaches itself to rock. It shows up in the oddest places."

The Doctor shook his head. "My guess is, it's the _same tissue_. Belonging to one enormous creature."

Sarah backed away from the wall. "How far below the surface are we?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Miles," he said. The strode to the stream, knelt down to dip his finger into it, and gingerly tasted it.

"It's as Liber described," the Doctor said, standing again. "But this creature is the key. It takes water from the surface in its giant tubules, digests the organic matter it contains, and excretes waste. But its waste is purified water, which it returns to the surface through pools like that one. The creature is an integral part of the planet's ecosystem."

_And nearly as old_.

The Doctor and Sarah looked at each other.

"What was that?" said Sarah.

"Telepathy," the Doctor whispered. "It's sentient."

_And old. So old. So very old. I was but a child, a small bundle encased within a comet, when it came upon this world as it was still cooling. And from the comet I sprang, and consumed hungrily, and I grew, and my tendrils came to reach to all the corners of the planet_. _Until I started to tire. Until I started…_

"You're dying," the Doctor said.

The chamber seemed to tremble slightly.

_I'm dying_.

"There are people on the planet's surface," said Sarah. "The water they need is disappearing. Without it, they will die as well."

A breeze whispered past Sarah and the Doctor. It was almost like a sigh.

_Then they will die_.

"This isn't right," said the Doctor. "This isn't the natural order of things. Living creatures die. New ones are born. The ecosystem continues."

After pacing back and forth for a moment, the Doctor continued. "Your death is inevitable. By delaying the inevitable you've brought an entire race to the brink of extinction. But you don't want to die, do you? You're not ready to let go."

_Not ready. So many songs to sing. You're surprised. My race inhabits the interior of planets. Though light years apart from each other, our thoughts travel over gravity waves. It takes an age, but we sing songs of such beauty to each other, one building upon the song of another. And to not be part of that. It is unthinkable_.

"And yet this is the way of nature," said the Doctor. "I'm a Time Lord. Our race is nearly as old as the universe. We live many long lives, but even we do not live forever. Nor can you."

Sarah wiped a tear from her eye and swallowed. Stepping forward, she took the Doctor's hand and spoke. "Pain and loss, they define us as much as happiness or love. Everything has its time, and everything ends. By clinging to your life, by refusing to let go, you're going to bring about the end of an entire race. Is that the song you wish your people to sing of you?"

There was silence for a time. After a few minutes, the Doctor opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, the creature responded.

_It is not. _

"Then you must let go," Sarah said. "And consider this: that if there wasn't death, there could never be children."

_A child. Yes, there must be a child. And through the child will I yet live._

Another soft breeze blew past the travellers.

_It is time._

The ground shook and the living wall and ceiling began to darken, then it crumbled into flakes. The Doctor activated his screwdriver to provide illumination.

The floor was littered with blackened flakes. The creature must have been some hundred feet thick, for that was the distance between Sarah and the Doctor and the wall of the cavern.

There was a shudder under the pile of black flakes, then a green, glowing, pulsating organism emerged, some ten feet in diameter. It was growing before their eyes, consuming the remnants of its parent.

"This is its child," said Sarah, her eyes wide. "It's going to take the place of its parent."

"Come along, Sarah," said the Doctor. "Time to leave."

The TARDIS materialized on the grassy area between the cultural archive and the river. Stepping outside, the Doctor and Sarah saw a large crowd gathered by the river. The inhabitants were dressed in robes similar to the one worn by Liber, and they were singing. They were facing the river, and Liber, standing on a platform, was facing them, directing the choir.

When Liber saw them, he dropped his arms and the singing stopped. He worked his way through the crowd, and ran to them.

"The River!" he said. "It's replenishing itself. And he wells are refilling. You did it. You've saved us all."

Turning to the Doctor, Sarah asked, "How could it have happened so quickly?"

"We've travelled forward in time by a week."

"Ah. Naturally," said Sarah.

Addressing Liber, the Doctor said, "Actually, you can thank Sarah. It was her actions that allowed your ecology to return to normal."

Before Sarah could object, Liber knelt down before her, and his people, who had approached them, did likewise.

"You will always be remembered," Liber said, looking up at her. "Sarah, the bringer of water."

"Oh don't be daft," said Sarah. "Come on, get up. We're just glad we could be of help, aren't we Doctor?"

"Most glad," the Doctor said. "Now, Sarah, we have just one more thing to do."

The Doctor led Sarah back into the TARDIS. After waving farewell, the Doctor closed the door and approached the console.

"And what is this one more thing?" Sarah asked.

"The prophecy," said the Doctor. "The TARDIS can take us back to the precise time it was created. I want to find out who left it here for us."

When they emerged again, hundreds of years earlier, there was a hubbub of activity before them. The inhabitants were busy excavating the site of the cultural archive, using nothing more elaborate than shovels and pails. The workers were dressed in dark green coveralls. Some were singing, some were joking, and some just kept at their work. One of them seemed to be directing the efforts of the others.

The Doctor glanced about, then called, "Well come on. Show yourselves! Meddling, interfering… meddlers."

"And who are you talking to?" Sarah asked.

"There must be a Time Lord here. No one else could have left those coordinates for us to find."

One of the inhabitants, a woman, the one who had been directing the work, approached them. Word had spread amongst the others and they stopped to look at the visitors.

The woman halted a few feet in front of the Doctor and Sarah, looked up at them, and gaped.

"Well?" asked the Doctor.

"Forgive me," the woman said. "But we have never seen your kind before. You are most welcome."

"Ah. Thank you," said the Doctor. "But are you sure you've not seen any others like us? Someone who might have left you with a prophecy, perhaps?"

"No, of that you may be assured. No one would forget meeting folk such as yourselves."

The Doctor scratched his head and said, "But that doesn't make any…" But then he laughed. "Oh, foolish Doctor. Of course."

"What?" Sarah asked.

"Listen," the Doctor said, addressing the woman. "I'd like you to bring something to write with. Can you do that? There's something I'd like you to record."

"Yes. Yes, of course. Pardon me, I'll be right back"

And with that, the woman dashed towards a small building near the excavation site.

Sarah nodded slowly. "It was you, wasn't it? You left the prophecy for yourself."

"Indeed I did," said the Doctor. "Rather clever of me, don't you think?"

Sarah smiled. "'How clever I am', said Peter Pan."

"What?"

"Oh nothing. You just reminded me of someone for a moment. I could ask how this is possible, you leaving behind a prophecy after you've actually fulfilled it, but I suppose that's time travel for you."

* * *

><p>After materializing in Sarah's back yard, Doctor and the Sarah exited the TARDIS.<p>

"There, you see? Back safe and sound, just as I promised."

"Yes, well done, Doctor," said Sarah. She looked at him sadly.

"So this is goodbye, then," she said.

"Until we meet again," said the Doctor.

Nodding slowly, Sarah said, "You will see me again. But I won't see you. I'm... dying."

With a sad smile, the Doctor said, "Yes."

"You already knew?"

The Doctor nodded. "Time Lords perceive things very differently from humans. We see you not only as you are today, but all that you have been and all the things you might become."

"Except that I have no future, do I?"

"Sarah, you've lived an extraordinary life. Just today, you saved a race from extinction, a race that will remember your name for eternity."

"Did you take me there deliberately? Did you know that I'd be able to connect with… something else that was dying."

"No, I didn't. I can't speak for the TARDIS, though. In my experience, she sometimes doesn't take me where I want to go, but has a definite knack for taking me where I need to be. Perhaps this time, it took you where _you_ needed to be. A kind of gift."

Sarah wiped a tear and approached the TARDIS, resting a hand on its exterior. The light on top flashed for a moment.

"Goodbye then, Doctor. Knowing you, having travelled with you, has given me memories enough for many lifetimes. I'm so grateful."

She gripped the Doctor in a fierce hug. He did likewise.

"And I'm so grateful for you. Goodbye," he said. "My Sarah Jane."


End file.
